Give Tony Kushner His Award, Dammit

By Jeffrey Goldberg

This is just unconscionably stupid. Where to begin? Actually I can't begin now, I'm running out to something, but really, denying Tony Kushner an honorary degree because a former aide to George Pataki thinks he is anti-Israel? Kushner is critical of Israel, yes, and I don't think he actually understands much about the Middle East, but I'm not sure this is the business of the City University of New York. In any case, Kushner is obsessed, in his own way, with the Jewish condition, and he views himself, I'm reasonably sure, as inhabiting the age-old role of the laceratingly self-critical Jewish dissident. He strikes me, from a distance, as one of those sons-of-the-people who wakes up worrying about the Jews, and goes to sleep worrying about the Jews. I think his discomfort with Jewish power is mainly misplaced, but turning him into a free-speech martyr? Is that what a handful of Jews want to do with their political power? In any case, if those Jews on the right are trying to marginalize his opinions, this is certainly not the way to do it. Bozos.